Open Book
by EnglishPotato
Summary: As far as Jane knows, her brother is a headhunter...a very good headhunter. That's why she doesn't pay her own rent and throws all of her time into writing. Until she got involved in the criminal network. Her brother's job title just took an entirely different meaning now that she's under Jim Moriarty's thumb.
1. Chapter 1

Jane stood in front of her corkboard with a sense of satisfaction, exhaustion, and relief. The hard part was finally over. She had finished the planning stages for her book.

Jane rewarded herself with a few pretzels from her bowl and a quick moment of relaxation on the worn sofa and then it was back to work. She opened her laptop, pulled the outline for Chapter One off the wall and started writing. Three lines materialized on the Word Document and then her phone buzzed and lit up. Jane ignored it; she was on a roll. She ignored the three other times it buzzed, then caved when the texts changed to a call.

It was Daniel, a friend of her brother and the only of his many comrades who bothered to talk to her. She slid the answer tab and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's Daniel," His voice was casual, but still put Jane's mind in a bit of a haze. She swore he had one of the best voices in the world; she could listen to him talk for hours. "Are you busy right now? I texted you."

Jane glanced at her open laptop. "No, I was just…doing a bit of writing."

"Oh. Can I bother you for tonight? I need a favor."

"Of course," Jane said quickly. She paused, bit her lip while Daniel laughed. "I-I mean, what do you need?"

"A date."

"What?"

…..

"Daniel," Jane gripped his sleeve in a concerned way.

"Yes?"

"That guy with the eyepatch has a switchblade."

"Yes, well I'm going to ask that you ignore all displays of weaponry for the time being. This will only take about ten minutes and then we can go catch a film or something."

"Daniel, those are illegal here! What kind of ball is this?"

"Calm down, Jane. I already stick out here," Daniel led Jane slowly toward the row of high windows where there was less of a crowd. "Alright, perhaps I exaggerated when I said this was a ball," He murmured to her. "It's more of a get-together full of very dangerous people who more-or-less work in tandem to the British government."

Jane blinked, turned her head and looked around at the conversing men in suits and women in expensive dresses. "In tandem to the British government," Jane echoed, her tone laced with worry. "I guess this headhunting job is a lot more risky than I thought."

"This is one of my more dangerous runs," Daniel admitted. He wound his arm around Jane's and led her onward. "I just need to deliver a message to someone and then we can leave." Daniel looked about the room as he and Jane started to circle the ballroom. Jane let her writer's eye take over, taking in each person before moving on to the next. She wasn't analyzing them, just observing. She took in an older man, balding, with glasses. Behind them were clear, piercing blue eyes, like they were pieces of ice.

Jane's mother had those eyes. Her brother, Charlie had those eyes. The ones that felt like they were prodding your soul, the ones that no matter how hard she tried to lie, always whispered, _"Tell the truth."_ After eighteen years of living under the omniscience of those eyes, she'd grown to have a certain dislike for them.

The man suddenly made eye contact with her and she tightened her grip on Daniel's arm and looked away. Daniel looked down at his impromptu partner and frowned, concerned.

"I'm alright," Jane assured him before he could say anything.

Daniel nodded, then smiled and lowered his head. "Did I tell you that you look beautiful in that dress?"

Jane broke into a smile, forgetting the strange man and running her free hand over the dress' skirt. It was a plum purple, one-shouldered and drawn in at the waist with a silver belt. Her hair was up; Jane hadn't had time for anything else. "Thank you," She murmured. "You don't look too bad yourself."

Daniel laughed, but his easy smile quickly vanished. "There he is," The pair veered toward the bar and Jane bit the inside of her cheek. "Jane, I need you to be silent around this man. Even if he asks you a question, do not answer him. If this goes like I want it to, he won't even acknowledge your presence, but I'm afraid your choice in wardrobe might have tossed that out the window."

"It's the only dress I had," Jane replied defensively. A warm blush spread across her cheeks. "Is it really that short?"

Daniel didn't answer. He slipped his arm from Jane's, curved it around her waist and came to a halt at the back of a seated man. "Mr. Moriarty," He stated clearly. The man turned on the stool and smiled flippantly.

"Ah," He took a sip from the glass in his hand and swiped his tongue over his bottom lip. "Another message from Mycroft, I presume." Daniel remained expressionless and reached into the jacket of his suit and removed an envelope. He offered it to Moriarty, who tilted his head, regarding it. His coffee-colored gaze slid over to Jane and his mouth twitched. As quickly as it had come, it went, circuiting back to the envelope. "Do you know what's in that envelope?" He asked, gesturing to it.

"A request, I assume," Daniel answered. "Among other documents. But nothing I can quote directly."

"Liar," Jane was taken aback. Her eyebrow shot up for a split second before she forced it down, inhaling sharply at her sudden mistake. Moriarty turned his head toward Jane, a ghost of a smile on his face. Jane lowered her gaze to the floor and shifted her jaw. Daniel glowered and pulled her closer to him. Moriarty's attention moved back to him and he lifted his chin. "Why don't we chat about the contents of this envelope, hm?" He slowly pulled it out of Daniel's hand and turned it so the corner touched his bottom lip.

"Certainly," Daniel's tone was curt. Moriarty turned back around, setting the envelope on the bar.

"Your escort will have to leave," He said casually. Jane's brow furrowed and she looked up at Daniel, who was only a profile as he bore his gaze into Moriarty's back. "Seeing as she's not affiliated with these affairs." Jane parted her lips, but Daniel interrupted her.

"Wait for me by the windows. I'll come and get you when I've finished." Jane backed out of Daniel's grasp and nodded, moving slowly toward the windows. She felt numb. Daniel took the empty bar stool next to Moriarty and tried not the glare as he looked up to watch her leave.

"She is exquisite," He said. "What a shame she's Canadian."

"How did you know that?" Daniel faced Moriarty, his face hard and his voice disbelieving and clipped. Moriarty didn't turn his head, but his eyes found Daniel's.

"Careful with your tone," He warned slowly. His stare returned to Jane's retreating figure. "There's a red maple leaf tattoo on her left calf." Daniel stared at the envelope on the bar. When Moriarty covered it with arm, he looked up at him. He smiled airily. "If you like your life, I strongly suggest you don't move from this bar stool at all, am I clear?"

He didn't bother waiting for Daniel to answer. He picked up the envelope, slipped it into his jacket and walked after Jane. Daniel set his jaw and searched along the second floor. He found the assassin almost immediately, leaning casually against the raining of the balcony. He talked to no one and his gaze skimmed over him every so often. Daniel fixed him with a cold look before watching Moriarty.

Jane saw him coming in the glass' reflection. She had already ruled out that he was probably a bigger threat that the blue-eyed man from earlier-there was a touch of crazy in him.

"Hello," Jane regarded him from the corner of her eye and called to mind Daniel's insistence that she not speak a word to this man. She focused on the slender wooden pane in the window, following it horizontally, then vertically. "My name is Jim Moriarty, dear. I didn't catch yours." Jane cleared her throat, swallowed and continued ignoring him. At least…she tried to. "So, Canada, eh?"

Jane's jaw dropped slightly and she stared at him full on, alarm pulsing out of her. He grinned triumphantly. "I thought that might work. Do you want to know how I know?" Slowly, Jane nodded. Technically, she thought, I'm not necessarily talking to him. "Then tell me what you name is."

"Her name," A commanding voice snarled. "Is absolutely none of your business, Mr. Moriarty." Jane bowed her head and sighed, relieved.

_Charlie._

Jane could feel his tall shadow cast over her, a great sentinel that she could rely on. Jim's features melted into an unreadable type.

"Give Magnussen my regards," He replied, and then he turned on his heel and left without another word. Jane kept her eyes to the ground for as long as she could.

"Jane," Charlie said. His tone was far softer that the one he'd used to address Jim Moriarty, but it was firm. Jane looked up. There were those blue eyes. "Jane what are you doing here?"

"I-I should be asking y-you the same thing," Jane stuttered. Charlie drew his shoulders back and frowned.

"Jane, I don't have time for this; Who brought you here?" _Tell the truth_, her brother's eyes coaxed.

"Daniel," Jane obliged, then sent her eyes straight to the ground. She didn't even want to see his reaction. "He's at the bar."

"Right," Charlie tightened his jaw. The he reached out and placed a hand on his sister's back. "Come with me." As they neared the bar, Jane could see the fear in Daniel's eyes. Jane smiled weakly at him, glanced at the scary look in her Charlie's eyes and set her jaw. She hefted what guns she had and prepared to do battle with her brother.


	2. Chapter 2

_Terribly sorry about the wait for this chapter! I meant to post it yesterday but I hadn't finished researching and planning out everything. Thank you so much for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I promise that Daniel and Charlie's professions WILL be explained in the next chapter, which I will post either tomorrow night or Saturday, depending on how things go._  
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_Thank you again for reading!_

_-EnglishPotato_

Charlie drove Daniel and Jane to his apartment, an airy loft on the Thames. They were silent until Charlie closed the door of his loft. Then he sized Daniel, curled his hand into a fist, and slammed it into his jaw. The hit threw Daniel against the wall and his bottom lip broke open, sending a thin trail of blood gushing forth and down his chin.

"Charlie!" Jane tried to conduct some control over the situation, but she was promptly ignored. Charlie grabbed Daniel by the lapels.

"You took my sister into the heart of Britain's criminal minds; what the _hell _were you thinking?" Charlie's was outright menacing. Daniel didn't fight. He let Charlie pin him to the wall in all his fury while he calmly came up with an answer.

"I was thinking," He replied. "That Jane deserved to know what you actually do. I wasn't counting on Jim Moriarty cornering me on a bar stool and trying to get off with her." At this, Charlie shook him violently, then dropped him. He twisted toward Jane and pointed to the adjoining door.

"Go shower," He commanded. "You're staying here for the night."

"Charlie-"

"Jane!" Charlie fixed her with a glare. "Go. To. Bed."

There was a very long stare-off, which Daniel used as time to staunch the bleeding in his lip with his pocket square. Jane threw her shoulders back in an effort to look taller and gave her older brother the scariest look she could. It was no use, though. Arguing with Charlie was like arguing with her mother: It was impossible to come out winning.

She forced air out through her nostrils and stalked off, slamming the door behind her. As soon as she was gone, Charlie sighed and let his shoulders droop.

"You need to tell her the truth," Daniel murmured, folding the bloody pocket square.

"I shouldn't have to," Charlie replied. "It was better that she didn't know anything."

"And now," Daniel ran a thumb along his left eyebrow. "She needs to know everything. It's best to prepare her."

Charlie hummed and chewed his lip thoughtfully.

"I'll come by tomorrow," Daniel promised and slipped out the door, leaving Charlie to ponder.

Meanwhile, Jane ran a bath and worked her hair out of the updo, finger-combing the sandy strands and checking the tub's progress a regular intervals. When she was satisfied with the water level, she sat in the scalding bath and stared angrily at her knees, hands clasped around her shins. Her hair barely dipped below the surface, only wetting the ends. Jane didn't care; it would dry when she decided to get out.

For now, she was alone in the silence.

She couldn't hear Daniel and Charlie. Either they were being civilized or Daniel had been murdered. Given the recent events, Jane wouldn't have been overly fazed if the latter was occurring…man did she have questions for Charlie. So many questions…

Her phone trilled on the counter, making her jump. She pulled the plug, wrapped herself in a towel and picked up her phone, expecting the worst. But it was only Daniel.

_For the danger I put you through, I believe I owe you dinner._

Jane smiled, replied with a flippant, '_Danger? What danger?'_ and carried the phone into Charlie's room-rather dark and nondescript by Jane's judgment-and found Charlie's shirt drawer after two tries, plucking a navy blue one off the top and dragging it over her wet hair.

A quick comb through said hair and some vigorous scrubbing of her face to take the makeup off and Jane was ready to sleep. She scoffed at the threadcount in Charlie's sheets, then crawled into them and waited for sleep to take over.

The next morning, Jane stole a pair of Charlie's sweats and rolled the waist down until they fit around her hips. Charlie himself was already in the kitchen, contemplating his cereal at the bar. He looked up when Jane walked in and watched her take an apple from the glass bowl and draw a knife from the holder by the stove.

She cleaved off a piece of apple and chewed it before asking, "When can I go home?"

"Never,"

"What?" Jane had the knife buried in the apple's flesh when she paused. "Why?"

Charlie finished his cereal and stood up to take his bowl to the sink. "Because you're moving in here, with me."

"What?"

"I'm going to clear out my office-"

"You will not."

"-and Daniel will take you down later so you can pack up your clothes and a few other items-"

"Charlie, so help me _God-"_

"And we'll keep you here until I can think of something better to do with you."

Silence. Total silence. Jane stared Charlie down with a withering glare.

"And what am I supposed to do in the meantime? I'm not going to stay in this apartment forever."

"Of course not," Charlie said this as if it were obvious-which it was. "If you would like to go out, I'll just come with you."

"Charles Lewis Taylor," Jane commanded. "I will not be followed around by a chaperone every time I want to leave this apartment."

"You don't have a choice," He replied passively.

"You're being ridiculous."

"May I remind you," Charlie turned on the sink and rinsed his bowl and spoon. "Daniel is the reason you have to do all of this in the first place. If you should be angry at anyone, it's him."

Jane pushed her lower jaw forward like she did when she was angry and went to pout on the couch. She turned on the TV and watched the news, whittling down the apple until it was a core. When she went to throw it away, the bell sounded, signifying Daniel's arrival.

Jane left the dirty knife in the sink to annoy her brother and buzzed Daniel in. He knocked moments later and Jane opened the door, grabbed his arm and started dragging him down the corridor.

"Come on," She told him. "Let's go."

"Where?"

"My apartment."

"Does Charlie know?"

"Who cares?"

"Jane, I'd rather not get hit again. Besides, you don't have your key."

"Key, schmee, I've got another way in."

"And that would be?"

"The spare I keep in the spider nest."

"Spider nest?"

"I'm not afraid of spiders, Daniel."

"Good heavens, are you sure you're Charlie's sister? He hates them."

"I know he does," Jane stopped at the door when she realized she had no shoes. "You'll have to carry me."

Daniel grinned and shook his head, turning around so Jane could climb onto his back. On the street, no one bothered to glance at the tall man in the suit giving a barefoot blonde a piggy back ride.

No one but a man who lifted his phone and took a picture.


	3. Chapter 3

Charlie had cleared out the second bedroom like he had promised when Daniel and Jane came back. He'd left a note on the windowsill saying that he'd gone out-for work, Jane assumed-and that he'd bring back the rest of her furniture.

Still slightly fuming from his insistence that they share an apartment, Jane left her suitcase full of clothes, her two boxes, and her corkboard in the room and combed through the kitchen to find lunch. Daniel moved with her, keeping his distance but maintaining full sight of her.

Jane silently wondered if Charlie had put him up to this.

"So explain it to me." Jane commanded, spreading peanut butter onto a piece of bread.

"Explain what?" Daniel asked, turning from the window. Jane shrugged.

"I don't know. Everything."

Daniel chuffed and cleared his throat. "Okay. Charlie is an agent for a man named Magnussen, a newspaper proprietor. He has this sort of way with getting people to do what he wants. Blackmail, if you will. Anyways, Charlie acts as a bodyguard and also an a…oh," Daniel looked down at his shoes. "No, assassin isn't the right word."

"Hitman?" Jane suggested.

Daniel shook his head and pointed at himself. "My job. He's more of a spy, if you use the term loosely."

"Okay, then who do you work for?" Jane pressed a sandwich together and offered it to Daniel. He shook his head, so Jane took it to the tiny table in the corner and set the plate there.

"The government."

"Like James Bond?" She grinned. Daniel mimicked her and laughed quietly, swiping his thumb along his jawline and sitting in the second chair.

"I'm more under the employment of one person rather than an agency. My employer works for the government, but lately I've been playing messenger instead of mechanic."

"And Moriarty is…" Jane trailed off, leaving the question open for interpretation. She took a bite of her sandwich.

"My employer's main concern. People pay him to organize crimes that work in their favor. He is manipulative, a liar, deceitful beyond all reason, and very intelligent."

"How intelligent?"

Daniel thought for a second. "He's smarter than the three of us together."

Jane narrowed her eyes. "And why would he waste his time with me?"

Daniel's cornflower blue eyes darkened and flickered to a random spot on the table. "I can think of a few reasons. None of them sit well with me." He rested his elbows on the table, clasped his hands together and set his chin on top of them.

"Let's hear them then," Jane tore off the crust and stuck it in her mouth. Daniel cast an uncomfortable look at her and moved his head so his mouth pressed into his knuckles. Jane lowered her eyes and inhaled. "Okay, moving on. Uh, when we went to that…gathering, you told me that everyone there worked in tandem to the British government. How is that?"

"Most of it is white-collar crime," Daniel explained, fidgeting and leaning back in the chair. "But all of it is laced with blackmail and terribly, terribly complex in ways even I can't grasp. Moriarty is different, though. He's had a hand in countless crimes from arson to z and absolutely no one has come close to catching him."

"But if you work for the government…I don't understand. Why don't you just kill him?"

"I have my orders," He rubbed a wrist along his hairline. "It's complicated, but my employer feels it best to have him alive."

"Your employer sounds like an idiot."

Daniel looked at her from the corner of his eye in a mischievous way. Jane finished her sandwich and left her plate in the sink to spite Charlie, then moved to the couch, stretching across the cushions and dangling an arm off so her fingertips brushed the hardwood floor. It started to rain and Daniel stared out the window, his wide, muted blue eyes glazing over in thought. A long silence fell over the apartment and Jane listened to the tapping off rain on the windows.

"I didn't know it was possible to be this bored so early into house arrest." Jane finally said.

Daniel's eyes brightened and shifted to her. "Who ever said you were on house arrest?"

"Okay, selective house arrest," Jane decided. "I can't leave the apartment without you or Charlie."

"It's raining," Daniel reasoned. "We can't do anything when it's raining."

"It always rains; it's England."

"I mean when it's really coming down."

"Oh, well, _you _can't," Jane corrected. "I like going out to Hyde Park. No one goes there when it really pours like this; it's a nice place to think."

"So let's go to Hyde Park."

"Nah,"

Daniel chuckled. "Well, you shouldn't blame Charlie for putting you here. Don't hate him for it."

"I don't hate him for it," Jane sat up and hooked a piece of her hair around her fingers. "I'm just…annoyed, that's all. I had a routine going, I was writing, I was happy; now suddenly I'm living with my brother and I may or may not have a murderous criminal after me."

"You do," Daniel confirmed. "But what I'm trying to say is, don't go after your brother for trying to protect you. It's my fault you even need to do this in the first place."

"It isn't," Jane cracked a smile. "It's mine." She stood up, stretched and padded to the kitchen.

"What?"

"I'm just too damn sexy," Jane opened the fridge. It was next to bare. Daniel shook his head and smiled.

"No argument there," He murmured. The door suddenly opened and a very badly beaten Charlie stepped through the door.

Daniel stood up. Jane called, "Hey is it a thing that agents and hitmen just don't eat or-" She closed the fridge's door and got a good look at Charlie. His eye was swollen shut and his lip was bleeding.

"Oh, my God, what happened to you?"

"What does it look like?" Charlie shut the door and shed his jacket. "I got my ass beat."

"By who?" Daniel asked.

"Moriarty."

"Charlie, what did you do?" Jane accused.

"I was out putting the furniture you don't need in storage when he and a couple other guys come up to me and he gives me this," Charlie threw an envelope on the counter. It was addressed to Jane in elegant cursive. "I told him to stay away from you and he makes this sexual remark. So I punched him."

"And then what? He kicked the crap out of you? He's a head shorter than you."

"His bodyguards weren't," Charlie retorted. "The rest of your stuff is down in the truck. We can bring it up in a minute." He moved to the fridge, nudged Jane out of the way and opened the freezer, taking out a bag of frozen peas. He pressed them over his eye.

Jane picked up the envelope and opened it, found a folded up piece of stationary. She opened it and read the writing.

_I'll call you. X_

_-Jim Moriarty_

Jane heard her phone go off in her room. She turned, hardly daring to believe it and walked to her room where her phone sat on a box.

_Dinner?_

_-Jim _

Jane dropped the letter and backed out of the room.


End file.
